


The Earth Will Reach The Sky

by Merit



Category: Sorcerer to the Crown - Zen Cho
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 10:51:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7712110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merit/pseuds/Merit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were going to create their own world together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Earth Will Reach The Sky

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stepquietly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stepquietly/gifts).



It was a quarter past eight – Zacharias hadn't been keeping watch, but if the clock so happened to be directly in front of him, he couldn't help but notice the passing of time – when Prunella stormed in and then flopped heavily on one of the divans. She waved one of her hands in front of her face and then sighed gustily. Zacharias looked up from his book.

“How you never managed to choke one of those old men is beyond my reckoning,” Prunella said, giving Zacharias a look of misery. “Oh Prunella, my dear!” She said, affecting a gruffer voice, “Oh that simply isn't done in England. As if I care what has been done in England!” She huffed, crossing her arms across her chest and giving the floor a particularly filthy look.

“I take it the meeting didn't go well?” Zacharias said, smiling at her, closing the book in his hands. “And how I didn't murder them, well. More paperwork.”

Prunella wrinkled her face at the idea of even more paperwork. “Oh the usual sorts are complaining about Napoleon again. Of course he's terrible, but the whole situation would only blow up in our faces if we dared to cross the Channel,” Prunella paused, “Though I expect if there was a call for volunteers, several prominent voices would suddenly find themselves occupied.” She laughed and with renewed energy, sprang to her feet. “Have you had supper? I'm ravenous!”

“Well,” Zacharias said, putting his book down and standing. He wobbled for a second and Prunella gave him a despairing look.

“You didn't miss lunch again, did you? I told the maids to just put something in front of you if you hide away in the library,” Prunella murmured. Zacharias gave a covered tray in a corner a slightly guilty look. He thought he had smelled fresh bread a few hours ago. Possibly.

“There's a lot of reading to be done when one wants to set up the first proper girls' magic schooling,” he said, tapping his finger along the spine of the book.

“No doubt,” Prunella said drily, craning her head to look at the book in his hands. “But what was the title of the book that you were reading? Something about _Alchemical Reactions in_ _Sorcerous Terra_? I just can't see it with your fingers covering the binding. Very topical.”

Zacharias cleared his throat while Prunella gave him a very knowing look.

“I keep on hoping I find someone absolutely without a farthing to their name so they'll have no choice but to rent a suitable school to us, but. Cambridge said once more they find the whole idea preposterous and no one in Surrey has responded to any of my letters,” Zacharias admitted, shoulders slumping. “I may have indulged in some reading after that.”

Prunella's mouth flattened.

 

* * *

 

It was one of Zacharias' weaknesses, one he could readily admit, but it just made his life so much easier. He reassured himself that Prunella liked doing it for him, liked bossing people around in general. But he couldn't help but feel he was setting his wife – even if she was the Sorcerer Royal – on some unsuspecting Englishmen.

That made him smile every time. His wife.

His wife destroying a number of arguments and through sheer force of will and personality, getting her own way.

Prunella rocked back on her feet, eyes alight, as she finished speaking.

The man in front of them gaped, looking between an entirely unsympathetic Zacharias Wythe – who was also secretly trying not to laugh, but oh how he loved see people's first reaction to Prunella in full flight – and a triumphant Prunella, barely waiting to actually hear the man express approval.

“Well,” the man said, mouth moving around words he didn't dare say when they were both standing there, “It is just unseemly.”

Prunella pulled back, head tilting, one eyebrow raised impressively. “Oh? Unseemly?”

“All those girls, learning unnatural things,” he shook his head, “It will warp their minds and make them wholly unsuitable for marriage.”

“I am the Sorcerer Royal, wed for almost a year,” Prunella said, smiling dangerously. “I see nothing unseemly in my person. Do you?”

The room seemed to grow darker, the windows rattling as the wind picked up. An illusion, but one the man didn't recognize. He licked his lips, eye darting around the room, finding no succor.

The pause extended, becoming indelicate and then just plain rude.

The man's shoulders slumped and his hand reached for a quill.

“I believe you were mentioned a five year lease?”

“To start with,” Prunella purred, crossing her hands. The man only sighed.

And that's how Prunella, Sorcerer Royal, managed to secure suitable accommodation for the first ever Unnatural Philosophers approved girls' school.

 

* * *

 

It had taken nearly two days to ride back to their home, even with a bit of magical encouragement whispered to their horses. Zacharias supposed they could have made better time, but he had noticed some interesting snails half way through their journey and Prunella had decided they both needed flower crowns.

While he had squatted in the grass, using a small spell to focus on the snail's shell, she had frolicked, threading wildflowers together. The sun was high in the sky when she plopped a ring of poppies and daisies around his head. She smiled winsomely at him and it was like he was falling down again. His breath caught in his throat. She held out a hand and Zacharias felt himself being hauled up.

“A new friend?” She murmured, leaning past him to stare at the snail. Her braid slipped past her shoulder, chicory and dog rose adorning it. Zacharias breathed in deep and smiled.

“Possibly,” Zacharias said, “The results do have to be replicated a few more times before I would be willing to be published anything substantial.” Prunella nodded. She always promised she would read his drafts, often before sweeping out of the house on one of her many errands or out to a meeting that would drag on into the night. But then Zacharias would find random sheaths of paper in his library, her scrawling notes littered across the borders.

 

* * *

 

It was dusk when they arrived home, purple light shadowing the curved hedges. Toward the end of their journey, Prunella had quietened, almost drooping in her saddle. But whenever a passerby rode by, Prunella would straighten and nod solemnly. Half the flowers woven through her hair had scattered, the wind brushing the hair out of Prunella's face, petals catching in the folds of her skirt. Zacharias had carefully placed the poppy and daisy crown in his saddlebags. He had half a thought to press the flowers later. He had pressed flowers with Lady Wythe when he was younger, a small delight that hadn't been related to sorcery.

Prunella stretched when she dismounting, yawning as she did so. She ran a hand through her hair, unsettling more flowers, more petals scattering on her shoulders. She flicked a petal off her shoulder with my finger, looking amused.

“I've turned into quite the shrubbery. I should probably be more careful, dropping all those petals about,” Prunella said. “Though I do seem to remember a few tales about bruised petals when I was at school,” she added, lightly, walking slowly over to Zacharias. “People say the oddest things when they don't know what to say to you.”

Zacharias nodded. “When they don't know how to place you,” he said, tracing the shell of Prunella's ear, tucking an errant strand behind her ear. “I've got something to show you, Prunella.”

Prunella narrowed her eyes.

 

* * *

 

It had been quite difficult keeping it a secret from her. From everyone in the house. Prunella was far too good at extracting secrets from their maids that Zacharias didn't dare place his confidences in them. Damerell would have been a perfect choice, if not for Rollo being almost constantly being around him these days. And Rollo would be too quickly, innocent or no, to bring back talk to Prunella.

So Zacharias had decided that it must be done by himself and himself only.

It would be more romantic that way, he reasoned, after spending a day waist deep in water that had more in common with a bog than a quick rushing stream.

And it was worth it for Prunella's face, gaping and her eyes lit up with wonder.

“It's beautiful,” she said, kneeling down at the edge of the pond, running a hand through the water, fingers caressing the side of a lotus. “I've never seen anything like it in England!”

“They're not from England,” Zacharias said, sitting beside Prunella. “They're from far away from England, from the other side of the world. Where you born, where your mother was from.”

Prunella started back, a hand raised to her mouth. She almost looked like she was going to cry.

Zacharias started talking quicker. “I thought, I thought you would like it,” he rushed, hand clenched on his coat, “Something your mother could have seen when she was your age.”

Prunella gently picked up one of the lotuses, holding it to her nose and breathing it in.

“I had to _adjust_ the soil type,” Zacharias continued. “And they won't last very long, I'm afraid. The climate is just not made for it,” he finished, shaking his head.

“Oh Zacharias,” Prunella cried out, dropping the flower and launched herself into his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and breathed in deeply, her breath catching. “This is more than I ever could have imagined. It is so breathtakingly perfect.”

She pulled back, a brilliant smile on her face and then she kissed him.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Broods' song Coattails.


End file.
